Dreams in the Dark
by midnightjen
Summary: Buffy's having some weird dreams that lead her to see an old enemy in an all new way.
1. Chapter 1

disclaimer: ha! like i own buffy

a/n: well its been a while since i posted anything but this has been lurking in my mind for a while and i've decided to actually do something with it. depending on the response this gets i might turn it in to a longer story. please enjoy and let me know what you think.

_The room around her was black. She couldn't see anything at all; she could hear her heart pounding as she whirled around trying to find some source of light, something to indicate where she was. And then it changed, the room around her was illuminated by a dull light and she wasn't alone anymore. He was there, half dead, chained to a wall, cut bleeding and bruised almost beyond recognition. But she would know that hair and those cheek bones anywhere._

'_Spike?' she gasped, moving forward slowly._

_He didn't make a sound, not a move to suggest that he had heard her and she couldn't help the horror she felt at seeing him like this. He was her enemy, sure, but they always fought like equals. The Spike she knew would never do this to someone, not even her. He liked the fight, not the torture, that was Angelus' thing. She would never do something like this to him no matter how much he pissed her off and got under her skin. She crouched in front of his broken form and reached out a hand to touch him. His eyes flew open and Buffy screamed._

Buffy shot up in bed, breathing hard and trying not to throw up. The dream was still all to clear in her mind and her heart was hammering in her chest. She felt sick, who would do something like that? His eyes, god his eyes, they were what had her really scared, his normal blue eyes that shone with life and seemingly perpetual amusement and anger when looking at her, had looked so dead and lifeless. She shivered, suddenly unable to get warm even though it was the middle of summer. There was no way she would be getting anymore sleep tonight.

DoDoDoDoD

_She was back in the darkness again. Once more she struggled to see where she was and then he was there. Chained to the wall and covered in even more bruises than he had been the last time. His eyes were closed but this time she knew he was awake, the unsteady rise and fall of his chest and the hacking sound his breathing made enough to clue her in._

'_Spike?' she whispered, moving closer until she was crouching in front of him._

_He opened his eyes to look at her and she saw a flicker of life behind his eyes._

'_Slayer,' he whimpered. 'Help me.'_

'_I don't know how,' she whispered, not noticing the tears rolling down her cheeks._

'_It hurts,' he choked out and blood started to leak out the corner of his mouth._

'_I know,' she cried softly._

_Buffy reached out to cup his cheek and he leaned in to her touch. He looked so broken that even the fact that he was her enemy couldn't change how sorry she felt for him, it didn't even factor in. All she saw was his fear and his pain and that pulled at something deep inside of her. She may be the slayer and he might be a vampire, the vampire in fact, famous for killing slayers but right in that moment he was a man. Just a man, who was scared for his life, chained up and being tortured._

_Then his eyes went wide with fear and his eyes shone with tears. He tried to reach for her but the chains wouldn't let him._

'_Don't leave me, please don't leave me.'_

'_Spike, what?'_

'_Buffy!' he cried and then he was gone, ripped from her dream by whomever or whatever had done this to him._

DoDoDoDoD

The dreams continued for days and then weeks. They weren't always the same, sometimes they had hours together and she would do her best to help him, to get answers. Sometimes they had just minutes before he was torn from her. When he was more lucid they talked, she told him about her days of boredom and her nights of patrolling and Bronzing with her friends. She told him about her mother and Giles and everything about being the slayer and her life. He told her what he could about his, sometimes she didn't like what she heard, and other times she smiled and begged for more. Each time she asked him more about what happened and he told her what he could.

'_It was Dru,' he whispered. 'Said I taste like ashes, kept cheatin' on me, said my head was full of you. She was right o' course,' he laughed bitterly and then choked. 'I was angry with her, got so drunk I couldn't stand and that's when they got me.'_

'_Who got you? Spike, who did this to you?'_

'_Was talking about you,' he coughed. 'Saying how you'd ruined me, taken away my dark princess, taken away everything. I was in this pub and one of them wankers overheard me talking about killing you, gloating bout all the things I would do to you. Was so stupid, never could have done it, you know, slayer of slayers had fallen for a slayer.'_

_Buffy laughed through her tears. 'Who did this Spike? Who overheard you?'_

_She wasn't even a little angry about his boasts about killing her, how he blamed her for everything; she just snuggled closer into his side and winced when he winced._

'_It was-'_

_And he was gone._

DoDoDoDoD

She couldn't remember when she stopped thinking of them as just dreams; they were too real for that. They had the same quality about them as slayer dreams and it didn't help that she had asked Giles about some of the things Spike had told her. No, she knew these weren't ordinary dreams, somehow Spike was reaching out to her in her dreams or someone was making it possible for him to contact her. Either way, it wasn't long before her friends noticed her drawn and tired expression, the worry she couldn't hide. They thought she was missing Angel, that she was just suffering the after affects of losing the love of her life. And she didn't bother to correct them, didn't tell anyone what she was going through every night.

Until one night she found herself truly alone in the darkness. She couldn't keep it to herself anymore, her attempts to find Spike hadn't gotten her anywhere and she knew she had to tell someone. After the third night alone in the darkness she couldn't fight it any more so she told the one person who might actually care that someone had captured and was torturing Spike. She told her mother.

'Mom, I need to talk to you about something.'

Joyce wasn't blind, she could see the changes her daughter was undergoing and was glad she had finally decided to talk about it.

'Why don't we go into the kitchen and I'll make us some cocoa.'

Buffy burst into tears and a surprised Joyce wrapped her in her arms and guided her instead to the couch in the living room.

'What's wrong honey?'

'Its Spike,' Buffy whispered through her tears.

Joyce understood her daughter's reaction at the mention of cocoa. Spike did love her cocoa, especially with those little marshmallows.

'What about Spike?'

'I've been having these dreams…'

DoDoDoDoD

_She was back in the darkness. And she was alone again. She sank to her knees and cried. She didn't know what to do, she didn't know how to find him, she didn't even know where to look. She knew he was no longer in South America, she had found out that much but even with her mothers help she still couldn't find him._

_And then he was there. He was unchained, unconscious, and so near dust she was afraid to touch him. That was when she knew, she wouldn't be speaking to Spike again, not in the dreams, not unless she could find him and save him. She was reaching for him when his body faded away. That wasn't how it normally happened, normally he was there and then he was gone in a blink._

_She doubled over, her sobs echoing through the darkness. She had lost her Spike._

'_The sunshine cries for our William.'_

_Buffy's head shot up and she gasped and tumbled backward. She wasn't alone anymore, Drusilla was in her dreams._

'_He's covered in you, pretty sunshine, all he thinks,' Dru brought a hand to her head. 'All he feels,' she put that same hand to her chest, right over her dead heart. 'Our William was always meant for more. William the Bloody, the heart of a poet and the mind of a warrior.'_

_Despite the weirdness of Dru invading her dreams and talking about Spike, Buffy couldn't help marveling at how lucid and sane Drusilla sounded. Drusilla held out a hand and after some hesitation Buffy took it and let Dru pull her to her feet._

'_Save our William, slayer. He belongs in the light.'_

'_I don't know how,' Buffy whispered. 'I don't know where he is.'_

'_London, sunshine, your Council has him.'_

_Buffy's heart skipped a beat and she felt the anger rise in her. Dru smiled an eerie smile and leant forward to whisper in Buffy's ear._

'_Sunshine needs her darkness, slayer. Go save our Spike.'_

DoDoDoDoD

She wasn't sure how she managed it, how she did it so quickly. Maybe someone up there really was looking out for Spike. She had a bag packed and was on a plane before her mother woke for work. She left nothing but a note with three simple words.

_I found him._

DoDoDoDoD

Joyce found the note and sighed in relief, finally her daughter was going to help Spike. She covered for Buffy with her friends, simply telling them Buffy had gone to visit her aunt and would be home in time for the new semester. After a while, after they received nothing from Buffy so much as a phone call or a letter, they started to question her story but they couldn't exactly do anything or say anything. After all she was Buffy's mother, if she said Buffy was visiting an aunt, she was visiting an aunt. And then it was the week before school was due to start and Buffy came home.

Joyce opened the door and found Buffy, rain soaked and sobbing like her world had ended. She collapsed into her mothers arms and sobbed until she had no more tears to cry. One thing was clear to Joyce from her baby's tears, Spike was no more.


	2. Chapter 2

a/n: i've been slack, really slack, but here it is the next chapter of dreams in the dark. for one crazy moment i thought i would make this a little longer and end it but then i came back to my senses. thanks to all my wonderfull reviewers, hope i didn't leave you hanging for too long.

_It was dark. It was always dark. She was alone. She cried out, hoping for someone to hear her. There was silence. Always silence. She was always alone. And then the singing started._

'_Run and catch…run and catch…'_

DoDoDoDoD

She couldn't sleep, and when she couldn't sleep she went patrolling. Only these days, there wasn't much she actually did on her patrols. Before, she would be chasing down the bad guy, saving anyone in distress. But that was before. Before Spike, before London, before her world fell apart. Now patrolling involved sitting on her favourite concrete tomb and staring at the stars. She blocked out the screams of a teenaged couple being savaged by vampires in the crypt fifty feet to her left. She didn't acknowledge the big blue demon looting graves. She let it all go.

She didn't care anymore. Why should she? She'd begged and pleaded, tried to bargain with the Powers and nothing had changed. She was still broken, Spike was still gone. Someone she loved was dead. She didn't care what happened anymore. Bring on the next apocalypse and let the world burn. She watched the stars and hoped that the Powers that Be were watching her, watching her give up, watching her _let_ the world burn.

'You took him from me!' Buffy shouted at the sky.

DoDoDoDoD

_It was dark. It was always dark. She was alone. She didn't cry out, there was no one to hear her. She was there to hear. She was alone in the dark but she was not. There was a voice. Tears. There was sunshine singing in the dark. Tears, sobs and a song._

'_Run and catch…run and catch…'_

DoDoDoDoD

There was something wrong with Buffy. They could all see it they just hadn't realized how bad things had gotten. The morning paper forced him to face the facts. Buffy needed help needed someone to talk to because she was no longer doing her job. The death toll in Sunnydale had risen exponentially over the last month. They could lie no more. With a tired say Giles reached for the phone. It was a conversation he never wanted to have.

DoDoDoDoD

When she came down for breakfast at around five o'clock in the afternoon, her days and nights had gotten a little turned around; she found all of her friends gathered in her living room. They were excited. That never boded well for her. Her mother was there hovering on the fringe, looking for all the world like she didn't want them in her house.

'What's going on?'

She didn't look at them as she asked, keeping her eyes solely on her mother. She didn't want to see their pitying and confused looks. Didn't want to see the way their eyes roved over her critically, taking in the dark clothes and tired blood shot eyes.

'I have some news,' Giles said slowly. 'Some good news.'

'Some very good news,' Xander babbled excitedly. Willow nodded eagerly.

'Oh?'

'I received a phone call today from the council.'

The word council penetrated through Buffy's thoughts and she started to shake. No! No! She knew what he was going to say, she didn't want to hear it.

'Rupert,' Joyce cautioned but he wasn't listening.

'William the Bloody is dead.'

Buffy swayed. She could hear it all over again, the screams as he died. Her screams, his screams, Dru's screams. And then a slap broke through her thoughts. Her mother slapped Giles hard enough to leave a handprint on his face. And Buffy ran.

DoDoDoDoD

_There was a light in the darkness. Sunshine. Drawing her closer. Dwindling sunshine. Sweet slayer. Then there was an echo. The echo of a memory, of a song. Of a long forgotten heartbeat. And a simple word. Effulgent._

DoDoDoDoD

It was her mother who finally found her. She knew, of course, just where to look. Joyce didn't say a word; she merely settled down on to the grass beside Buffy and rested against the headstone. Buffy leant her head on her mother's shoulder and allowed herself to cry.

'I'm so sorry, Buffy.'

They stayed there for a very long time while Buffy cried herself out and Joyce watched the stars. Neither bought up the fact that it wasn't safe for Joyce to be in a cemetery after dark nor the fact that it would be a hell of a lot safer if Buffy were doing her job.

'Do they know?'

'No,' Joyce replied. 'The Council just called to tell him Spike was gone; they didn't give him any of the details.'

'Did you?' Buffy sniffled.

Joyce sighed. She understood how hard Buffy had worked to find Spike, knew all about the dreams during the beginning of the summer. She could sympathize with the pain of witnessing the man you love torn apart in front of you. Despite all that Joyce was concerned for her daughter. Buffy barely ate, she never patrolled anymore, and she spent all of her time locked in her room going through the journals Drusilla sent her. It wasn't healthy, Joyce knew but she didn't know how to help.

The best she could do was be there for her when she cried; comfort her when she woke screaming from her dreams.

DoDoDoDoD

'_Run and catch…run and catch…the lamb is caught in the blackberry patch…'_

DoDoDoDoD

Sunnydale was a war zone. He'd seen war zones, even got drafted into some nasty crap in WWII but he'd never seen Sunnydale so bad. He never thought when he left that this would happen. That Buffy would fall apart and forget her calling. He hadn't thought his leaving was cause for such drama. It amazed him that after two hundred years he still didn't understand teenage girls. They could take the smallest thing like an ex-boyfriend and create a war zone.

His first stop was to see Giles.

'She's a mess,' were Xander's exact words.

He expected Giles to disagree, to admonish Xander and correct it as a rough patch. But Angel couldn't deny the result of Buffy's depression. The papers were reporting the sudden rise in death's, not just any deaths, strange deaths. They were reporting weird events. Buffy's refusal to patrol was forcing Sunnydale out from under the rock. The streets were deserted as soon as possible after dark. No one went anywhere alone.

It wasn't helping.

Angel did a sweep of the entire town. It took him all night and he killed more vampires and demons, saved more people, in one night than he had in a year the last time he'd been in town. He'd wanted to see Buffy but he had barely enough energy to slump exhausted onto Giles' couch. He gave a recap of his night while Willow patched him up.

'Can I help her?' he asked Willow when she was finished.

Willow hesitated. She knew her friend better than anyone and she'd tried to garner as much about the summer as she could. What she had learnt was confusing, it didn't make sense but it did give her one clear thought.

'I don't know,' she answered honestly. 'After you left she was bummed but she was getting better.'

'What happened to her?'

'We don't know. She started acting funny, looking tired, really distracted. Then she up and left, Joyce claims she was visiting an aunt but I don't believe that.'

'Do you know where she was?'

Willow knew. The information hadn't been all that hard to come by with a little digging. The only problem with knowing where Buffy was were the connections her mind was making, connections she really wished weren't there.

'I think she was in England.' She let that sink in. 'Did you know Spike is dead?'

The news took Angel completely by surprise. Spike was dead? Dead as in dust dead? Surely if that were the case he would have heard, someone would have gotten word to him. Dru would have come crawling back to her daddy. Then the implication of what Willow was saying impacted, not only on him but Giles as well.

'You think she killed him?' Angel asked at the same time Giles gave some typical British exclamation and sank into a chair with a very disturbed thoughtful look.

'Maybe. I don't know. Something happened while she was in London, something that ended with Spike dead and a broken Buffy.'

'What on earth happened in England?' Giles muttered.

DoDoDoDoD

_It burned her now. The sunshine burning so bright. It called to her. Begging her to step in to its light. Singing to her. Calling to her. Drawing her closer to the mouth of hell._

DoDoDoDoD

'Sunshine don't shine no more.'

The words stopped Joyce dead in her tracks. The words so obviously directed at her coming from a voice she had never heard but knew so well. Joyce turned around on the porch to face Drusilla, clutching the bag of groceries close to her chest.

'Hello Dru,' Joyce greeted cautiously. 'How are you?'

'My chest hurts,' Dru complained, taking a step forward. Joyce was proud of herself for standing her ground and not flinching away. 'Sunshine weeps for our William. Makes my chest hurt.'

Joyce's stiff stance softened and she actually took a step toward Dru. 'Would you like some hot chocolate?'

'With the little marshmallows?' Dru asked eagerly.

Joyce smiled and turned to her house. 'Come in, Dru.'


	3. Chapter 3

**a/n:** well here it is the second last chapter. please let me know what you think and enjoy.

_There was a presence in the dark. It was humming. Humming a song about sunshine. She didn't recognize the song but that didn't matter. There was noise in the dark once more._

DoDoDoDoD

He was beating on fledglings out behind Willy's when he heard the news. He almost got staked in his surprise but managed to dodge at the last minute and turn the stake on the fledge. He'd been trying for two weeks to fix the mess Buffy had created, even going so far as to call in a little help from some people he knew in LA but this meant everything he'd been working to correct was about to get thrown out the window.

Drusilla was back in town.

DoDoDoDoD

Giles got the news at the same time, though from a very different and far more refined source. The Watchers Council placed a call, one of those infamous, life changing ones that he'd begun to dread. Considering he'd been fired they only came with the worst news. Not that the call about Spike had been especially bad but it certainly hadn't gone over well with Joyce. This phone call was a warning, Drusilla was in town and she may be intent on revenge.

Revenge.

It was strange, Drusilla had been gone for well over a year, she had no reason to return to Sunnydale for revenge. Giles decided wires had gotten crossed and she had merely sought out Angel after the death of Spike.

DoDoDoDoD

_They saw the darkness. Heard the silence. Heard the screams. And They heard the singing…_

DoDoDoDoD

Giles was wrong, they all were. The Scoobies, minus Buffy, were al gathered at Giles' apartment so that he could share the news that Dru was in town. Merely proving to Angel that the rumors he'd overheard were true. Dru was in town and both men were hoping it was just because she was looking for family after her precious Spike died. Giles brought up the Council's revenge theory and Angel immediately disregarded it citing no reason for her act of revenge to take place in Sunnydale. Aside from Giles there were no other Watchers in town.

It took Willow two cups of coffee and an hour to prove them wrong.

'Oh god!' she gasped, glad she'd refrained from taking that large gulp of coffee.

'What's up, Wills?'

Willow gaped like a fish for a few moments before she felt Xander peering over her shoulder, Giles and Angel crowding around her.

'What have you found Willow?' Giles frowned.

'They're dead,' she answered in a horrified whisper. 'They're all dead.'

'Who is dead?' asked Giles, trying unsuccessfully to move Xander out of the way to get a better look at the screen of Willow's laptop.

'The Watchers,' she explained in a hush. 'Travers wasn't lying when he said Dru was out for revenge.'

'What are you talking about Willow?' Angel demanded.

'I hacked in to the Council's files; Buffy was there, in England when Spike died. The Council had him, I'm not sure what Buffy was doing there but they're all dead.'

'Who's dead, Willow! Xander said impatiently.

'The Watchers!' Willow nearly shouted. 'Drusilla killed every Watcher she could find, there are only about a dozen left alive in the UK.'

'What?' Xander asked stupidly. 'You think she's after Giles?'

'No,' Angel growled, already moving to the door. 'She's after Buffy.'

The room fell to a horrified silence. Given the state Buffy was in it would be almost too easy for Dru to kill her. Angel was already out the door, weapons in hand, before the Scoobies started to scramble after him.

Angel would not let Dru kill Buffy. Even if it meant finally killing her himself.

DoDoDoDoD

_They were both in the darkness this time. Two people lost in grief clinging to each other as the lyrics to a song neither knew drifted around them. Buffy held Dru's hand afraid of what she would see. This was the first time she and Dru had found each other in the dark. There were no more cries. No more sobs. No more of Dru' silly song about lambs. They didn't speak. They had no words to describe what they were feeling._

_Buffy was numb, looking around at the darkness refusing to feel hope once more. He was gone. Dead. No more Spike. She was tired of hoping. Tired of the allusion of fighting. She had given up. If she died right there in the darkness she wouldn't care. She'd let a thousand humans die at the hands of demons if it got her a place in Hell with Spike. Her Spike._

_Head a warrior. Heart of a Poet._

_Dru felt too much. It felt like her dead heart was pounding. Head aching. Chest burning. The bright white. Not sunshine. Not her Spike's pretty sunshine burning. White. So white. It hurt her all over. She'd cry if she could. Too much white. It burned. She knew the white. Used to have bits of gold. Used to glow till the sunshine died. No more white. No more gold. Didn't glow no more._

_She didn't care if the world burned. Wasn't afraid of Hell. Missed the sunshine. The way it burned. Too bright for her but her William glowed in the sunshine. Thrived on it._

_She missed her William. Her Spike. Missed the Sunshine that belonged to him._

_Sunshine missed him._

_Her chest hurt._

DoDoDoDoD

It would have been funny if the situation wasn't so desperate. The way Angel tried to burst in to Buffy's house only to be thrown off his feet as he hit the invisible barrier. It wasn't exactly his fault; none of them had been expecting it. As far as they knew Angel was invited, had been since that incident with Spike and the love spell.

Unable to hide his amusement, Xander stepped over the fallen Angel and returned Joyce's amused smile.

'What's going on?' she asked, eyes raking over the Scoobies and Angel as he struggled to his feet.

'Where's Buffy?'

'She's patrolling. Why?'

'She's in trouble,' Angel answered curtly. 'Do you know which direction she was headed?'

'Towards Restfield. Is she alright?'

'Dru's in town and we think she's come to kill Buffy,' Xander explained.

Joyce turned white, though not for the reasons they thought and reached for her coat. 'I'm coming with you.'

Angel tried to argue, so did Giles but Joyce told them all firmly that if her baby was in trouble she would do what she could to help. In the end Angel was too desperate to save Buffy to fight and allowed her to tag along. Willow walked beside her hoping to ask a question that had been burning in her since she'd found out about the dead Watchers. She waited until they were almost to Restfield before she asked.

'Buffy didn't kill Spike, did she?' Willow whispered in Joyce's ear. She didn't want Angel overhearing this particular conversation.

Joyce smiled sadly and it was all the answer Willow needed.

DoDoDoDoD

_They knew the truth. Could see it with Their own eyes. Could feel it with Their power. It was a knowledge unlike any other. It burned with a brightness They had not foreseen. It pulled at Them. Twisted at Them. Somewhere a higher power, a power greater than all others was laughing at Them. They did not understand it. Did not see its purpose. But no longer could They ignore it._

_The sunshine didn't burn anymore. The fallen one did._


	4. Chapter 4

**a/n: **well here it is, the last chapter. i'd like to thank all of my reviewers for their wonderfull words and enjoy!

_He remembered a girl._

_It was always dark, always hot, always burning. It didn't used to be this way. He knew that but he couldn't remember how it used to be. He dreamed though. Not while he slept. You didn't sleep where he was, you were knocked unconscious. While he was out he dreamed of her. Of the girl. His girl. Pretty little blonde thing. Stronger than she seemed._

_He met a blonde down here. He knew her. Remembered her from before. She was familiar but he didn't know why. She remembered even less. But they knew they were family. Twisted as it was, they fought together. Fought against the pain, against the fear, they fought to remember who they were and why they had been sent for punishment._

_What had they done in life to deserve the worst that a hell dimension had to offer?_

DoDoDoDoD

Angel stalked through Restfield cemetery letting his senses guide him toward Buffy. Behind him Oz and Xander were talking quietly about the last time Dru was in town. Beside him Giles walked in silence, he was deep in thought and Angel guessed it was to do with all of the dead Watchers. According to the files Willow had found Drusilla had decimated the Watchers Council, killing every Watcher in the UK she could get her hands on. No doubt there were several others who had been killed as she made her trek back to America.

It didn't matter to Angel that his childe had killed dozens of Watchers, what mattered to him was that she had come for Buffy. Come to exact her final revenge for what happened to Spike. Angel knew Dru, he'd made her what she was, and the one question he now desperately wanted answered was the one about Spike?

What the hell had happened to Spike?

Whatever had happened to Spike had turned Buffy into an empty shell of the person she had once been and had sent Dru on one of the largest killing sprees she had ever been a party to. The Watchers were dead and now Dru was in Sunnydale, getting closer and closer to finishing her task.

Angel stopped suddenly, throwing out a hand to stop Giles. He'd just caught a familiar scent on the wind. They were close. Angel directed everyone in the direction and they emerged into an older part of the cemetery. There, just a few rows away, Buffy was lying on her back on the top of a large concrete tomb. It was the very edge of the cemetery bordering the area sectioned off for the new graves. The section was empty now but given a few weeks would be filled with the dead, people Buffy had refused to save.

Giles made to move toward Buffy, to warn her, but it was too late. Drusilla emerged from behind a group of mausoleums and walked, almost danced, toward Buffy. Angel swallowed a growl that turned into a gasp when Dru didn't attack.

She climbed onto the tomb and lay down beside Buffy.

DoDoDoDoD

_The sudden transition from dark to bright white light was almost blinding. But that wasn't the worst of it. The worst was that something about the transition unlocked the thousands of memories he had forgotten. Memories of the blonde he knew as family. Darla. Memories of a girl, The girl, the one. He remembered the pain, remembered the burning, the heat. He remembered the torture of hell, the torture of angry little men with a world spinning quickly out of their control._

_But he remembered Her._

_And he'd brave the tortures of a hell dimension, the tortures of terrified little men, a million times over for Her._

_He became aware of others, the vast emptiness was no longer empty, there were beings, two of them. They emerged from the blinding white and looked at him with a curiosity, an awe, he didn't understand. And They spoke. They asked him questions, silly little things he saw no reason for them to ask. But he answered, happy for a conversation that didn't involve trading insults and strategy._

_Gradually the room around him began to shift, colors started to appear amongst the white. Gold was seeping back; gold that reminded him of sunshine, of Her._

DoDoDoDoD

For a long time they lay together in silence. There was no need to talk, Buffy knew that if Dru was in Sunnydale she had done all she could. Done what Buffy had wanted to but human conventions made impossible. She was the first to break the silence, so intent on watching the stars and ignoring the world she didn't notice the tingles on the back of her neck alerting her to another vampire.

'They're dead?'

'Killed 'em all,' Drusilla informed her. 'I found these.'

She stretched out her arm and let the thing fall, dangling from her fingers. Buffy's eyes were drawn to the object. A simple gold chain with three rings hanging off it. Three gold rings, two that Spike had given her. Her hand was shaking when she reached out to take the necklace and the rings from Dru. They were shaking so much that Dru had to reach over and help her undo the clasp so that she could slide two of the rings free. She slipped them on to her finger and felt silent tears slip down her cheeks. She held her hand up to admire the way the rings looked, the way they fit perfectly on the third finger of her left hand.

The necklace and the last ring went around her neck. She was oblivious to their audience.

They lay in silence for a long time, staring at the stars while Buffy cried.

DoDoDoDoD

_For a love that defied logic. A love that defied reason. A love that had proved more than any other, They would do anything._

DoDoDoDoD

Joyce made her way to the front of the group, smiling sadly, and came to a stop between Angel and Giles. For a while they watched Buffy and Dru in silence, the wind bringing their soft voices to them so they had heard everything. The Scoobies and Angel had heard Buffy's part in the deaths of all those Watchers. They'd heard but they refused to understand. The rings just caused Angels eyes to bug out of his head. No one really knew what to think but Angel had had enough. He took a step forward intent on interrupting when Dru shot upright startling everyone with the big smile in her face.

DoDoDoDoD

_For them They would do anything. For Her he would do everything. For Him the world had come to a stop._

DoDoDoDoD

Dru sat up suddenly and the big smile on her face had Buffy following. Dru slipped off the tomb and started walking out into the empty section. Buffy followed, confused, and behind her the Scoobies and Angel moved closer. Dru started twirling in giddy circles and the others came to a stop right behind Buffy, not one of them was willing to take the final step and touch her though.

'Dru?' Buffy croaked, she saw no reason to be happy.

'No more darkness!' Dru sing-songed. 'There's gold in the white room, sunshine singing again. No more flames.'

'Dru?' Buffy whispered, she felt hope where there should have been none. She alone understood Dru's words and they were stopping her tears melting her heart. 'What are you saying?'

'William the Bloody, our Spike!' she clapped her hands and skipped forward, pulling Buffy in to a dance, twirling her around. 'No more pain, no more tears, no more burning! My Spike, your Spike, our Spike!'

'What-' Buffy started to ask but her voice broke off when a clap of thunder sounded in the air. A fork of lightening hit the ground before them throwing everyone off of their feet. A second bolt of lightening struck knocking everyone back down as they struggled to get up. Two more claps of thunder, one more bolt of lightening and then there was stillness in their air. Buffy lifted herself to her feet and raised her eyes to the burnt ground before them where the lightening had struck.

He was there.

He was bruised, he was bleeding, his jeans were torn, his t-shirt gone. He was wearing no shoes and there were claw marks slashing his chest open. There was blood everywhere.

And she didn't care.

His mouth moved but she was running before she even heard his words. She threw herself onto him, wrapping legs and arms around him. She was crying tears of joy. Hysterical words of love raining down on him with her tears. It happened in the blink of an eye but the wind carried his words, brought them to the still fallen Scoobies. Two words that conveyed far more than they should have been able.

'Hello cutie.'


End file.
